Cal Girls Basketball Camp

Smith experienced a number of successes in her first year as head coach, leading the Golden Bears to three upsets over higher-ranked opponents. The first came in the form of a 4-point victory over No. 20 Arkansas on November 24 and then a win over No. 13 Arizona on the road in the regular season finale. The Bears completed their second upset in the same week as just four days later, they defeated 5-seeded and No. 22-ranked Arizona State in the opening round of the 2020 Pac-12 Women’s Basketball Tournament in Las Vegas. The win over the Sun Devils made the Golden Bears just the second 12-seed to win a game in the Pac-12 Tournament. Smith’s efforts also saw three players named to the Pac-12 Winter Academic Honor Roll and another three receive All-Pac-12 Honors. She also oversaw the signing of the seventh-ranked recruiting class in the nation, the program’s highest-ranked class since 2009.

Highly-regarded throughout the coaching ranks at both the collegiate and professional levels, Smith has played a key role in building Cal into one of the premier programs on the West Coast, handling duties from recruiting and scheduling, to alumni engagement and campus equity and inclusion. She has served on the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association Board of Directors and was hired in April 2019 to serve as an assistant coach for the WNBA’s New York Liberty.

On the hardwood, Smith has helped coach the Bears to the top three individual seasons in program history. In her first two years in Berkeley, Cal set then-school records for wins in a season, finishing both years with 27-7 marks before Cal pushed itself into elite status with the record-breaking 32-4 Final Four campaign in 2012-13. The Bears also recorded their best Pac-12 record (17-1) and won their first conference regular-season crown that season. Smith has helped lead the Bears to the postseason in 11 of her 13 seasons and was also part of the staff that led the Bears to the 2010 WNIT championship.

Smith arrived at Cal for the 2007-08 under head coach Joanne Boyle and remained on staff when Lindsay Gottlieb became head coach in 2011-12. Over the course of her tenure, she has played a key role in the Bears’ player development, which has seen Cal produce seven WNBA Draft picks in recent years, including guards Layshia Clarendon, a 2017 WNBA All-Star and the ninth overall pick in the 2013 WNBA Draft, and Brittany Boyd, who earned WNBA All-Rookie recognition after being drafted ninth overall in 2015. More recently, Smith has worked extensively with Cal's post players, including 2019 National Defensive Player of the Year and four-time All-American Kristine Anigwe, who was selected by the Connecticut Sun with the ninth overall pick in the 2019 WNBA Draft.

Of the 15 McDonald’s All-Americans in Cal women’s basketball history, Smith has helped sign 13 of them since joining the Cal staff in 2007, including an impressive haul in 2009 with a class that featured four All-Americans that served as the foundation to the Bears’ 2013 NCAA Final Four run. Cal has put together five top-20 recruiting classes in Smith’s tenure, which includes three in the top 10 (2009, 2011, and 2020).

A St. Louis native, Smith was a star player for Stanford from 1993-97, helping the Cardinal to three NCAA Final Fours and three Pac-10 titles. A four-year letter winner at Stanford, she earned her bachelor's and master's degrees in civil and environmental engineering from the school.

Following her collegiate playing career, Smith joined the professional ranks in the ABL from 1997-98 as a member of the Portland Power and played three years in the WNBA, along with one year in the Swedish Basketball League. She began her coaching career in 2003 as an assistant coach at Boston College, where she spent one season before joining Tara Vanderveer’s coaching staff at Stanford.

During Smith's tenure as an assistant with Stanford, the Cardinal posted an 87-16 (.845) record and made a pair of NCAA Elite Eight appearances. Smith played an integral role in the development of three of the Pac-10's top posts - Brooke Smith, Jayne Appel and Kristen Newlin - and in the spring of 2007, she switched her focus to working with the Cardinal guards, including three-time Pac-10 Player of the Year Candice Wiggins. After three years, Smith left the Farm for Berkeley and joined the Golden Bear staff for the 2007-08 season.

Romaine-Black joins the Golden Bears after serving as the director of marketing for the WBCA. There she oversaw all marketing, social media, digital, video, and content creation. While there, she secured a non-profit Google grant to increase digital presence, adding 115% in traffic to WBCA.org. She also led all Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion efforts leading the Diversity & Inclusion Committee and Social Justice Task Force for the WBCA.

Prior to her time with the WBCA she served as the Assistant Commissioner for New Media for the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference in April 2017, after serving as Interim for six months. Romine-Black joined the MAAC in August 2015 as the Director of New Media for Broadcasting & Marketing.

In her roll, she served as the primary contact for the MAAC’s ESPN Broadcast package and oversaw ESPN3 productions. She also oversaw the leagues’ social media platforms, ticket operations, video operations, and marketing efforts. Romine-Black supervised the new media staff and served as the primary marketing and sponsorship contact.

She assisted with the creation, management, and fulfillment of the marketing, and sales & broadcast budget for the MAAC, in coordination with the Commissioner. Additionally, Romine-Black oversaw the production of broadcasts on-site with the conference’s production company. She also served as the liaison to MAAC member institutions, MAAC staff, MAAC Marketing & TV Committee and production crew to organize and plan all game day operations related to broadcasts and marketing outreach programs, including on-site interviews, half-time features, and related programming. She also served as the game day producer for the MAAC Men's & Women's Basketball Championships and the AdvoCare Invitational.

During her time at the MAAC, Romine-Black has served as the host marketing contact for the 2017 NCAA Division I First and Second Rounds in Buffalo, NY and the primary ticket operations contact for the 2017 NCAA Division I, II, & III Women’s Rowing Championships at Lake Mercer in West Windsor, NJ. Most recently she was the host marketing contact and game day producer for the 2018 Division I Women’s Basketball Regional in Albany, NY.

Romine-Black joined the MAAC staff in August 2015 after serving as a Marketing & Promotions Associate with the WNBA Seattle Storm stage managing games and working community outreach events.

A native to Portland, OR, Romine-Black earned a double degree from the University of Washington in June of 2015 with a Bachelor of Arts in Business Administration and a Bachelor of Arts in English. While an undergraduate she worked for the Husky Athletics Marketing & Game Day Experience Department as the UW Women’s Basketball Game Day Director and a senior intern.

Romine-Black assisted with the 2015 PAC-12 Women’s Basketball Tournament and the 2015 NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Second and Third Rounds in Seattle, WA.

Heintz joins Bear Territory after spending the last three seasons at Saint Mary's where she was the assistant coach for head coach Paul Thomas.While in Moraga, Heintz helped lead the Gaels to an impressive turnaround in her three seasons, culminating with a WBI Championship in 2021-22. During SMC's postseason run the Gaels won six of their last eight, including three straight over three days in Lexington, Kentucky to capture the program's first postseason championship.

Prior to her time at SMC, Heintz had a successful stint at UC San Diego. As an assistant coach with the Tritons from 2015-19 UCSD went 107-18, winning the CCAA title all four years while advancing to the NCAA Tournament. In her last year in La Jolla, the Toreros went 30-1 overall and advanced to the NCAA Division II West Regional. Heintz primarily was influential in the development of All-American forwards Farrah Shokoor and Dalayna Sampton, as well as all-conference selection Mikayla Williams

Before her time with the Tritons, Heintz spent a year as the Director of Basketball Operations and Video Coordinator with her alma mater, UC Davis. The season prior, she served as the junior varsity basketball coach at Ballard High School in Seattle while simultaneously coaching an AAU Youth Academy team at Hoopaholics Academy.

An accomplished player before becoming a coach, Heintz played professionally abroad for two seasons in Europe for the ChemCats in Chemnitz, Germany in 2012-13 and the Forssan Alku Club in Finland the year before, in 2011-12.

In college, Heintz played two seasons at UC Davis, where she was a Big West All-Academic, Big West All-Tournament Team member, and a two-time Second Team All-Big West Conference honoree. She began her collegiate career playing at the University of San Francisco for two seasons from 2006-08, where she garnered West Coast Conference All-Freshman Team honors and the team's Defensive Player of the Year Award as a sophomore.

At Cal, Pierre was a 4-time Pac-10/12 All-Defensive Team honoree from 2009-2013 and earned the team’s defensive most valuable player award after the ’09-’10 season. She played in seven NCAA Tournament games between 2012 and 2013 including 21 minutes in the Bears’ Final Four game against Louisville in New Orleans in 2013. Pierre still holds the fifth-most career steals in program history (243), the sixth-most in a single season (90) and her 140 games played are ranked fourth overall.

After a one-year sports management fellowship at the Pac-12 Conference office, Pierre joined the women’s basketball staff at Cal as the assistant director of basketball operations intern for the 2016-17 season. By the end of the year, she was promoted to interim assistant coach which ultimately launched her coaching career. Pierre spent the next four seasons as an assistant coach at UCSB where the Gauchos collected 41 wins, reached the Big West Tournament semifinals in 2020 (before the remainder of the tournament was canceled) and then the quarterfinals in 2021. She also guided nine players to all-conference honors.

A native of Pasadena, California, Pierre was a McDonald's All-American at John Muir High School where she was also named Second Team All-State, 2009 Player of the Year and 2009 Athlete of the Year in the San Gabriel Valley. She was also the No. 3-rated point guard by ESPN HoopGurlz her senior season and No. 22 overall. Pierre led John Muir High to four Pacific League championships and also ran two years of track.

Bryant came to Cal after having recently served as an assistant coach with the Raptors 905 during the 2021-22 season, where he was responsible for leading the development of the team’s defensive scheme. His efforts resulted in the team earning the G-League’s top defensive rating that year. Before that, he spent the 2020-21 season with the Detroit Pistons, where he led player development for the team’s front-court players and helped then-rookie Isaiah Stewart earn an NBA Second-Team All-Rookie recognition.

Prior to the Pistons, Bryant served as an assistant coach with the Brooklyn Nets from 2017-20, focusing on the team’s offseason training program, front-court player development, advanced scouting and helping with players returning from injury. He also spent time as an assistant coach with the Oklahoma City Thunder from 2015-17, where his duties included player development, game and practice video analysis and playoff scouting.

Bryant was also one of three NBA coaches invited to be a USA Jr. National Basketball training camp coach in 2019 where he worked with players such as Walker Kessler, Jalen Duren and Jarace Walker. He has also spent the last seven years consulting with various AAU teams on the West Coast.

Bryant was a four-year letter winner at the University of Missouri (2000-04), where he started 81 games for the Tigers and was part of three NCAA Tournament runs - including an appearance in the Elite Eight in 2002.